Relief for a price, G-8

Vol:22 Iss:14 URL: http://www.flonnet.com/fl2214/stories/20050715000905200.htm
WORLD AFFAIRSRelief for a price
JOHN CHERIAN
The G-8's debt relief proposal for 18 poor countries comes with strings attached - they have to adhere to market reforms and pro-globalisation policies.
CARL DE SOUZA/AFP Gordon Brown.
IN the second week of June, Finance Ministers of the Group of Eight (G-8) countries announced, with great fanfare, their plans to "write-off" the debts of the poorest countries, most of them situated in sub-Saharan Africa. Gordon Brown, United Kingdom's Chancellor of the Exchequer, who is credited with working out the debt relief initiative, said in London that the plan was "a major breakthrough" as it offers up to 100 per cent multilateral debt relief to the "vast bulk" of the debts owed by the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC). "Debts that are simply unpayable in the real world are finally taken care of. It is the richest countries hearing the voices of the poor," Brown said.


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